Bob was running home from school when he had a brilliant idea. He ran even faster with excitement. When he got home, he told his dad he wanted to go for a hike. His dad agreed almost too quickly. Dad loved hiking – he loved being in nature. Bob said he would take care of everything and pack what they needed for the adventure.
That night Bob was so happy he could not sleep – he decided to pack at night itself. He packed water bottles, 2 sleeping bags, a tent, food, hiking sticks and lots of drawing paper, a pencil and some tape –things to keep himself busy if they decided to camp overnight.
They woke up at the crack of dawn and started driving to the mountains. It didn’t take too long to get there. Dad parked the car while Bob started to get familiar with his surroundings. They started climbing.
After a few hours of climbing, they had lunch – but it looked like the weather was changing on them. What started out as a brilliant and sunny day was turning out to be cloudy and unpredictable. It seemed that this mountain had a weather system of its own. Even then, continued climbing for 5 hours and decided to break for dinner. They had nearly reached the peak of the mountain and decided to set up camp. Plus, the weather was not so pleasant so it was best to call it a day. They sat up for a bit in hopes to see some stars but instead they heard thunder and saw lightning strike. One strike, then another and the third one was so close, it nearly struck them. They decided to climb down immediately but it was going to be impossible to climb down before it got really dark. They were hoping to find help or even a paragliders that might help them get down. No such luck. They had to get creative.
Bob remembered the papers in his backpack and the tape – Bob got even more creative by using the tent and super strong tree branches to create a paragliding-like system that could maybe work. It did not look professional at all or strong enough to help them with the downward descent. Anyone with the right mind might even question if it would work. Their options were limited so they prayed and jumped off. It was unreal – what were they thinking – this was going to go only two ways, either really well or well, we might as well end the story here and let the imagination take it away.
Our descent was nerve wrecking and chilling to the bone but, HOORAY, we made it!! The news got around quickly and once we were home, we were surrounded by media and news reporters waiting to hear our story and broadcast it everywhere. And…our make-do paraglide was getting a photo shoot of its own.
We were invited to the park – our friends, neighbors wanted to hear more and see our paraglide. It was a massive picnic – the attention we were getting was amazing. While we were talking to more media and got busy with friends, we noticed the paraglide went missing. Luckily someone spotted the thief and we were able to get the paraglide back. We were requested to showcase this at the local museum – what a cool way to end the week! The adventure that began with a hiking idea turned out to be an epic story that I would get to tell forever!!
Armaan's World 